Abstracts - Earli

Effects of web-based training exercises in academic writingAntje Proske, TU Dresden, GermanySusanne Narciss, TU Dresden, GermanyAcademic writing is a complex task that involves a variety of cognitive and metacognitiveactivities. However, many university students perceive academic writing as an ill-defined taskwhich, as a consequence, leads to feelings of incompetence and frustration. Thus, the purpose ofthe research presented here was to develop and evaluate interactive web-based training exercises tosupport students’ acquisition of basic writing competences. The main concerns include the: (a)development of a psychologically sound computer-based writing environment for academicwriting; and (b) empirical investigation of the effects of working with the writing environment onachievement and motivation. First, the development of the writing environment "escribo" isdescribed. It is based on an integrative model of academic writing, which was derived fromtheoretical considerations and models of the writing process as well as text comprehension. Thismodel identifies the demands of academic writing in detail. Therefore, it provides the basis foranalysing empirical findings on strategies and techniques to master these demands. Consequently,empirically proven writing strategies were implemented into the writing environment. As a result,students receive cognitive and meta-cognitive support in their academic writing. Second, anempirical study using a delayed treatment design was carried out to determine the effects of thewriting environment. Its results show that there is some evidence that working with the writingenvironment is superior to a situation without any support; in session 1, for example, studentssupported by "escribo" wrote texts with a better readability compared to students working withoutsupport. However, after composing texts with "escribo" students assessed the intrinsic value andtheir competence beliefs of writing lower than students of the comparison condition. Third,implications of these results will be discussed with regard to the restrictions and benefits offostering basic competences of academic writing through interactive web-based training exercises."Please explain what the question is asking you for". The effects of task representation onquestion-answering activitiesRaquel Cerdan, Catholic University of Valencia, SpainRamiro Gilabert, University of Valencia, SpainThe present study analyses the role of question encoding processes in question-answering successand its relation to students’ previous comprehension level. Forty-seven secondary school studentsread two texts and answered ten comprehension questions, five belonging to each text. The readingand answering was performed using a software called Read&Answer. Only in one of the texts,students were asked to first explain in their own words what the question was asking them for andthen answer. Results indicated that explaining questions favored only good comprehenders,whereas it hindered performance for poor comprehenders.Executive functions and learning mathematics in 7-Year-Old ChildrenSanne van der Ven, Utrecht University, NetherlandsEvelyn Kroesbergen, Utrecht University, NetherlandsAlready at a young age, children show large individual differences in math proficiency. Severalstudies have shown that executive functions play a large role in math acquisition, but most studiestreated executive functions as a whole. The aim of this study was to assess the role of the distinctexecutive functions in the mathematical development of twenty-six normally developing sevenyear-oldchildren who were learning addition over ten. Based on previous research, three executive– 646 –